Methods and apparatus for determining the status of a device
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- instructing by a network device a first radio frequency identification (“
RFID”
) device to transmit heartbeat packets, wherein instructing by the network device is performed by sending one or more commands including provisioning information to the first RFID device, wherein the provisioning information specifies a frequency of the heartbeat packets that the first RFID device is to transmit, each of the heartbeat packets a first Electronic Product Code (“
EPC”
) of the first RFID device and a time stamp, wherein the EPC of the first RFID device indicates that the first RFID device transmitted the heartbeat packet and the time stamp indicates a time that the heartbeat packet was transmitted by the first RFID device, wherein the one or more commands further indicate a first time at which the first RFID device is to transmit a first one of the heartbeat packets; and
determining by the network device whether the first RFID device transmitted the first one of the heartbeat packets;
wherein sending one or more commands comprises sending one or more command packets including the provisioning information to the first RFID device;
wherein the network device does not transmit the heartbeat packets.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and devices are provided for determining the status of a networked device, e.g., a networked RFID device. In some embodiments of the invention, a customized packet is used to transmit a “heartbeat” from each of a plurality of networked devices to a server. Some such embodiments use a customized syslog packet for the heartbeats. The heartbeat includes identification information regarding the device, e.g., the unique electronic product code (“EPC”) of the device. The identification information may include other identification and/or authentication information, such as a shared secret and time data, which may be hashed with the identification information. The heartbeat may include information indicating the health, accuracy and/or reliability of the device and/or of the network that includes the device.
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Citations
48 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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instructing by a network device a first radio frequency identification (“
RFID”
) device to transmit heartbeat packets, wherein instructing by the network device is performed by sending one or more commands including provisioning information to the first RFID device, wherein the provisioning information specifies a frequency of the heartbeat packets that the first RFID device is to transmit, each of the heartbeat packets a first Electronic Product Code (“
EPC”
) of the first RFID device and a time stamp, wherein the EPC of the first RFID device indicates that the first RFID device transmitted the heartbeat packet and the time stamp indicates a time that the heartbeat packet was transmitted by the first RFID device, wherein the one or more commands further indicate a first time at which the first RFID device is to transmit a first one of the heartbeat packets; anddetermining by the network device whether the first RFID device transmitted the first one of the heartbeat packets; wherein sending one or more commands comprises sending one or more command packets including the provisioning information to the first RFID device; wherein the network device does not transmit the heartbeat packets. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An apparatus, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being configured for; instructing by the apparatus a first one of a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) devices 1 through N to transmit syslog packets by sending one or more command packets to the first one of the RFID devices, the one or more command packets specifying a first time at which the first RFID device is to transmit a first syslog packet and a first frequency at which the first RFID device is to transmit the syslog packets, the first syslog packet comprising a first Electronic Product Code (“
EPC”
) of the first RFID device and a first time stamp; andinstructing by the apparatus each remaining RFID device of the plurality of RFID devices to transmit syslog packets, respectively, by sending additional command packets to remaining ones of the plurality of RFID devices, the additional command packets specifying second through Nth times at which at which the second through Nth RFID devices are to transmit first syslog packets, the first syslog packets including an EPC of the corresponding remaining RFID device, wherein the additional command packets specify a second frequency at which the second RFID device is to transmit the syslog packets and specify an Nth frequency at which the Nth RFID device is to transmit the syslog packets; wherein the apparatus does not transmit the syslog packets. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. A method, comprising:
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providing by a network device a first RFID device with first instructions that the first RFID device transmit first syslog packets according to a first time designation, each of the first syslog packets comprising a first Electronic Product Code (“
EPC”
) of the first RFID device and each of the first syslog packets being transmitted according to the first time designation specified in the first instructions, wherein the first time designation includes a first frequency with which the first RFID device is to transmit the first syslog packets;wherein providing the first RFID device with first instructions comprises transmitting a first set of one or more command packets to the first RFID device, the first set of one or more command packets including the first instructions, wherein the first instructions specify the first time designation including the first frequency with which the first RFID device is to transmit the first syslog packets; wherein the network device does not transmit the first syslog packets. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A computer program embodied in a machine-readable medium, the computer program including instructions that, when executed, causes a processor to perform the following steps:
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instructing by a network device a first radio frequency identification (“
RFID”
) device to transmit heartbeat packets, wherein instructing by the network device is performed by sending one or more commands including provisioning information to the first RFID device, wherein the provisioning information specifies a frequency of the heartbeat packets that the first RFID device is to transmit, each of the heartbeat packets including a first Electronic Product Code (“
EPC”
) of the first RFID device and a time stamp, wherein the EPC of the first RFID device indicates that the first RFID device transmitted the heartbeat packet and the time stamp indicates a time that the heartbeat packet was transmitted by the first RFID device, wherein the one or more commands further indicate a first time at which the first RFID device is to transmit a first one of the heartbeat packets, wherein sending one or more commands comprises sending one or more command packets including the provisioning information to the first RFID device;obtaining information from content of the heartbeat packets that are received from the first RFID device; and determining whether to modify the frequency of heartbeat packets transmitted by the first RFID device; wherein the network device does not transmit the heartbeat packets. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. An apparatus, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being configured for; sending instructions to a first radio frequency identification (“
RFID”
) device, the instructions including provisioning information that specifies a type and frequency of heartbeat packets that the first RFID device is to transmit, wherein the type provided in the provisioning information indicates that the first RFID device is to transmit heartbeat packets that include a first Electronic Product Code (“
EPC”
) of the first RFID device and a first time stamp, wherein the EPC of the first device indicates that the first device transmitted the corresponding heartbeat packet and the first time stamp indicates a time that the corresponding heartbeat packet was transmitted by the first device; anddetermining whether the first RFID device is transmitting the heartbeat packets; wherein sending instructions comprises sending a command packet including the provisioning information to the first RFID device; wherein the apparatus does not transmit the heartbeat packets. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48)
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Specification